The Girl Who Was Supposed to Die
by Phoenix's Moon
Summary: "It's July 7, X786 and Natsu's at a grave." It's Lucy's grave to be exact, three years after she died. The next year, and every year after X786, things start to change...
1. Chapter 1

_The Girl Who Was Supposed to Die_

_Disclaimer: Credit goes where credit is due_

It's July 7, X786 and Natsu's at a grave.

He has a single present in his hands wrapped in a casing of iron, courtesy of Gajeel. The other Dragon Slayer understands the importance of this day for Natsu.

It's been three years since Lucy died.

Natsu's in front of the only gravestone in the entire Magnolian Forest. It's within half a mile of his house and is even further away from Magnolia than his and Happy's dwelling.

He places the metal-coated box in his hand of the ground, right on top of the thin layer of new green leaves and moss that surround the erect stone. It's right next to two other boxes, one covered with bronze and the other with silver. Natsu supposes he should have brought a gold box this year to continue the trend, but he just doesn't. Maybe it's because Lucy never really cared for the color gold unless it was on a Celestial Key.

The box contains a key, but the wrappings themselves sure aren't gold.

Every year up to this one, he's managed to get a Key holder to open up one or two of gates for a golden spirit using Lucy's keys. The first year, Ares was summoned and agreed to have her key sealed in a box and placed in a forest.

"I've had too many people who've abused me. Lucy was the only master I've ever had who treated me like a human being. If she's dead, I should no longer exist in this world. You might as well destroy it, but if this gives you more closure, then go for it."

Aquarius and Scorpio had both been sealed together last year. The normally aggressive mermaid and her boyfriend had been solemn as they had been summoned, as if they both expected that this would happen.

"She could be annoying and tear me away from Scorpio all the time, but she was still my friend. I might have denied it, might have hated it at times, and might have hated her at times, but she was always there. She still deserved being washed away sometimes though."

"We are reunited by her when we thought we would never be on the same side in the human world again. We are grateful for everything she did for us- she even sacrificed her life! We are forever in her debt, even if she's dead. We are willing to search for her forever in the world of the spirits with our sand and powers."

Natsu thought it was surprising that Loke agreed to be put away in a box this year. Natsu always assumed that the Lion spirit would be the last to be encased in a box. Apparently, that wasn't true.

Natsu would always recall the day when Loke had suddenly come out into the mortal world, clothed in a pair of footie pajamas, his arm wrapped around a tan lion plush. The area around Loke's eyes had been red and puffy, as if he was still mourning Lucy.

It had only hit Natsu later that those the two and a half years that he had to get over Lucy's death had only been ten months to Loke.

"I-" Loke had said as he collapsed on the floor in tears. "Don't want this anymore. I don't want to feel like this, I don't want interaction with other Spirits, I don't want a new master- I want to be sealed away until kingdom come."

So that's the true reason why Loke's box is cloaked in iron.

Natsu kneels down and rests his head against Lucy's gravestone. Soon enough, the gray surface is streaked with small rivulets of water. He doesn't speak; he can't speak.

There's a small crunch of dead brambles breaking from behind Natsu. He doesn't even bother to turn his pink-topped head away from the stone in front of him. Natsu recognizes those footsteps. They're large and pompous with a small taint of soft defeat, accompanied by the smell of pine trees.

The Magnolian Forest doesn't have any type of evergreen trees.

"Gray." Natsu simply says.

"Natsu." Gray's sad, deep voice slowly comes closer. "Capricorn appeared and asked Gajeel to seal him up as well. I have his box right here."

Gray chucks a blue plated box at Natsu. The dragon slayer barely manages to turn around in time and catch it.

"Thanks," Natsu quietly says. He meets Gray's eyes and sees the start of two tears there.

Natsu has to tear his gaze away as two more packages bruise his side. He raises one cheek and gives Gray a look that pegs him as insane.

"Virgo, Sagittarius, and Taurus are in one." Gray quickly supplies, turning away from Natsu. "Gemini and Cancer are in the other."

Gray rushes off before Natsu can say anything else. Natsu assumes Gray's going to go cry, not like he blames the ice mage.

Natsu gathers the- there's so many this year- four boxes on the ground without a word and begins to dig with his hands. The two boxes from years before sit in the dirt like stepping stones in a stream, moss tickling their edges. Before he can really contemplate what's just happened, there's four identical holes in the ground.

Natsu carefully picks up Loke's box and lowers it into one small pit. The silver surface becomes lightly browned as dirt forms a thin film over the sides. He gives the coffin- that's all it is, a coffin- a kiss before brushing a small amount of foliage from the forest floor around the sides of the lid.

Capricorn's box goes into the ground next. Natsu can't help but imagine the goat man huddled in the corner of a room, waiting for his princess to join him again. He has to keep himself from even letting out the smallest tear as Capricorn is secured in the ground; he still has five friends to bury.

The next two boxes that he immerses in the dirt fall into an emotionless routine. All he can think of the entire time is that he's saying goodbyeto seven people- they were never just spirits to him- in one day.

Natsu tires, and fails, to restrain his emotions. In his eyes, he's not alone in the forest. He's surrounded by the spirits of people that he's had to leave of have left him.

He has no ties to Lucy now.

Natsu supposes this is the best way for life to go now. He's left alone, unmatched, free; like he was before Lucy. He has no chains that restrict him to one thing or another.

So maybe Lucy was supposed to die.

Maybe.

0-0-0-0-0-0

_"She isn't supposed to feel sad or cry tears; she was only supposed to be the girl who was meant to die."_

I feel like I can only write angst lately… Angst or a kid Loke…

The ending kinda sucks for this, but it's the ending. I'll have a short bonus chapter up soon for this after I finish more of Hush Little Child, my Harry Potter/Fairy Tail crossover. And the word 'supposed' is a key part in the bonus inspiration. *evil laughter*

This was inspired when I was flipping through the story Lucy the Dragon slayer by CupcakeGirl633. I read the lines "He looked at all 5 presents on his table. They were all neatly wrapped, for Lucy, for each year she was gone, for each birthday." and I flew to the computer and started to write, even though there was still some of the chapter left to read. ^^'

I hoped you enjoyed! Please give me your feedback!

~Phoenix's Moon


	2. Chapter 2

_The Girl Who Was Supposed to Die_

_Disclaimer: Credit goes where credit is due_

It's July 7, X787 and Natsu's at a grave.

Someone's watching him from the shadows as he sits in a circle of six slightly reflective boxes. The person's perched in a tree and is wearing their hair up in a ponytail, tied up to their right with a red bow.

It's fitting that the bow is red. After all, the person in the syrup maple was shot in the head four years ago. They lived though.

They had just forgotten everything they ever knew.

They didn't forget the pain as the doctors carefully extracted the bullet from their head without antiseptic or morphine. They remember the recovery and learning things like how to eat for the second time and the humiliation that came along with it.

They can't erase those two damn names from their head either.

"Lucy," it mocks every night as they try to go to sleep on their lumpy mattress. "Natsu."

They hunted down the two names and found a connection at a guild called Fairy Tail. The person finds the name unique and thought-provoking and somewhat familiar. They aren't sure why though.

The person found out that 'Lucy' was dead and 'Natsu' was less than social.

At least 'Natsu' had one steady thing in his life that everyone that the person questioned knew. Every July, he disappeared into the Magnolian Forest. Natsu sat in a clearing, about a mile in, for the entire day. Barely anyone approached him.

Everyone seemed to feel too uncomfortable about the whole subject of 'Natsu' to do so.

The person, still up in the maple tree, watches 'Natsu' as he crumples in front of a stone. The person cranes their head to take a better look at what's making 'Natsu' so emotional and almost loses their balance. They quickly find a better perch and manage to glimpse the simple gravestone.

"Lucy" it reads. The four letters are rough, gouged into the desolate surface of the stone. Moss forms straight lines inside the name, helping to clarify what is actually engraved in the gravestone.

The person nearly falls out of their supposedly safe place, shocked by the grief this place is causing the pink-haired man.

'Natsu' seems to hear the rustle of leaves and turns around, staring straight up at the mysterious person. He gets a good look at her- yes, the person's a girl- and her long blonde hair. It appears to reach down to her knees from her vantage point.

The girl freezes like a deer caught in the headlights.

"Lucy?" 'Natsu' tentatively calls to the girl.

She doesn't respond.

"Luce?" He tries again after clearing his throat and wiping small tears from the edges of his eyes. The girl blinks and squeezes the branch she's on even tighter in response. "Is that you?"

"Who's Lucy?" the girl shakily says.

'Natsu' immediately deflates. "You're not her." he grinds out. "Sorry."

He turns around and slugs back to 'Lucy's' grave. The blonde girl can make out small sobs from 'Natsu' and she feels so bad for him.

"When?" the girl quickly replies, inching towards the trunk of the maple.

"When what?" 'Natsu' spins around and faces the girl. Anger dots his face, as if she directly offended him in some way.

"Die?"

"Luce died four years ago," 'Natsu' says, his anger instantly replaced by sadness and pain. "We were on a cliff, battling a dark guild called Small Warriors. One of their members was a gun slinger."

"Oh?" the girl says in confusion as she slides down the tree's trunks. She winces as a stub scratches at her hand, opening a cut she had acquired the day before in a small brawl.

"The gun person targeted one of her spirits and shot. Luce dived in the way and took the shot on the right side of her head and was thrown off the cliff. I never saw the bullet exit and they never recovered her body."

"Right side, four years ago?" the girl confirms as she touches solid ground.

"Yeah." 'Natsu' replies.

"Never exited…" the girl says in amazement.

All of her inhibitions are destroyed as she yanks out her ponytail and lifts her long tendrils of hair to show a line that has a small circle near the middle. "Got it four years ago." She said excitedly. "I couldn't remember anything.

"Luce?" Natsu- this is Natsu now, not 'Natsu', he's a link to her past- looks her over, glancing from her left to her right as he scrolls up her body. "Luce!"

Lucy- because that's her name now- enjoys the sensation of two muscular arms wrapping around her. She relishes the warm tears that slide down her skin.

"Luce." Natsu begins to bawl into her. "Luce."

Lucy smiles and buries her head into Natsu's neck. She's feeling so much and cannot describe what's happening.

She might not know anything but the pain and humiliation, but she's already learning new emotions and new words, but hey, Natsu's already her favorite feeling, person, and word.

Lucy was the girl who was supposed to die and wasn't supposed to cry.

She wasn't anymore.

0-0-0-0-0-0

_"When we reunite, it'll be in a forest where no one else can interfere."_

Shorter than the first chapter, but still! Something! I had a lot of fun writing this and I hope you had fun reading it. I found that I really wanted to do one of the 'Lucy's not really dead' stories and it lead along to this…

You might have noticed that this chapter takes place one year after the first. I might be plotting to do a chapter in the year X788… Possibly… :)

Thank you to those who reviewed, favorite, followed, read, or enjoyed. It motivates me and inspires me to write when I have support! ^^

Anyhow, I'm off to work on other stuff. Please give feedback!

~Phoenix's Monn


	3. Chapter 3

_The Girl Who Was Supposed to Die_

_Disclaimer: Credit goes where credit is due_

It's July 7, X788 and Natsu's at a grave.

Lucy's right next to him, with her keys fastened tightly on her belt. Since her reappearance, she's worn them differently.

Natsu secretly wonders if it's because she always wanted a belt made out of gold and silver.

"Hey," he whispers to her. "Five years, right?" Natsu's talking about how long it's been since she supposedly died, since her body was supposedly submersed in the ground.

Lucy smiles at him and without a single word, snuggles into Natsu's side. The forty carat's worth of diamonds the he slipped onto her left-hand ring finger ten months ago tries to imprint a design on his abs, an attempt that is foiled by the simple fact that he has no fat on him- only muscle.

Natsu returns the gesture, draping his arm on Lucy's shoulders and pulling her closer.

"Yeah," Lucy closes her eyes and hums into Natsu. He feels the relaxing vibrations and practically melts onto her. "We should tell someone that I'm actually alive though. Someone like Gray."

The two months after Natsu found Lucy were full of remembering and love. Lucy can recall everything now, from the time when she saw her first celestial spirit as a child to this day. She hopes that even in her old age, she doesn't forget anything.

Lucy's had enough of that already.

"It's nice this way." Natsu futilely disagrees. He already knows that Lucy's going to get her way, so he amends his statement. "It's nice, but if we were to tell anyone, it should be Ezra."

Ezra's been a shoulder to lean on for the last five years. Whenever Lucy and Natsu had any sort of fight, Natsu would seek refuge with Ezra and she wouldn't kick him out of the girl dorm. Ezra could be caring when she wanted to be, even if Natsu made it his mission to annoy her at times.

"Both of them then." Lucy replies as she fingers Natsu's ring. It's made out of a rare unmeltable metal, found in the mines beneath the Tower of Heaven, and is encrusted with a single small diamond. Natsu rarely wears it on his finger because he doesn't want the guild to know about Lucy- or his marriage to her- quite yet and often wears it in his hair, knotted underneath the mass of messy pink that Lucy loves. It's always on the right side of his head.

Always.

Natsu blows air into Lucy's face, causing a tickling sensation. "How are we going to pull it off without them murdering you? Or me?"

"Concerned about your own behind now?" Lucy teases as she pulls away from Natsu. She takes a moment to balance before meeting Natsu's eyes.

Natsu can only think about how damn nice those things are.

"More concerned about where yours is going tonight, Luce." Natsu says as he wiggles his eyebrows.

"To your place, Mr. Dragneel." Lucy smartly replies. "We can have fun there, you know?"

Natsu rolls his eyes and springs towards Lucy, pinning her to the ground. "Well, Mrs. Dragneel, we can have just as much fun right here."

Lucy laughs from her compromising position on the forest floor and Natsu's hands find her sides and start to tickle her; tickle her, of all things. He could do… other things to her, but he decides to tickle her.

Even though she's married, Lucy believes that she'll never completely understand males.

"NAAAATTTTSSSSUUUUU!" Lucy cries between bouts of laughter. "STTTOOOOPPPP!"

There's a crunch of leaves and both Natsu and Lucy freeze for a moment before they both realize that the sound was probably caused by the two of them rolling about on the ground.

Lucy breaks the silence by Lucy-kicking Natsu off of herself. He hits a syrup maple, sending a plethora of leaves towards the ground. Natsu lets out a mock-groan at Lucy and she glares at him from the ground.

"Oh my god." someone says from the entrance to the clearing.

Natsu shrinks back and Lucy's eyes widen as she tries to make it to a more covered part of the forest. There's a person who's seen them. Before they were willing to reveal their relationship.

Natsu's thoughts towards the intruder aren't very pretty.

"What the hell is this?" a distinctly female tone asks. "Is that… Natsu? Why are you here with someone? I thought you said you were going to come later?"

"Sorry Erza." Natsu stammers as he lifts up his left hand up.

"A ring. You are wearing a ring." It takes Erza a grand total of two seconds to notice the white band around his ring finger, effectively shocking her into silence. Natsu realizes what he's just lifted up and jams his left hand underneath his butt.

"Shit." Natsu says.

"Erza? You okay?" Natsu smells pine trees as the second person enters the clearing. Not pine trees, Natsu secretly hopes. Can't be pine trees. However, Natsu's wishes are wasted as Gray's head peeks past a tree.

Droopy eyes followed Erza here. Maybe he came with her or stalked her. Did something to Erza or with her, because Gray always has an ulterior motive- or that's what Natsu tries to convince himself.

Natsu lets a secret praise out to the heavens when he notices that Lucy has already escaped. At the very least, it's one less thing to worry about.

"What you doing here?" Gray asks Natsu with a raised eyebrow. Natsu tries to stimulate tears and puts on his best acting voice.

"Mourning, you idiot." Natsu gruffly replies to Gray.

"Thought you were going to come later."

"Was."

Gray gives Natsu a strange look and a nod. "Why's Erza on the ground then?"

"One of the spirits came out and panicked." Natsu hopes that Gray doesn't call his bluff. If Natsu gets away with this lie, then he can come up with an explanation to give to Erza later. The gears are already turning in his head as he structures a plan. Maybe Aries came out to thank him and, being the innocent being she was, gave him a ring which she made him place on his finger, or something along those lines.

"Oh." Gray shrugs and picks up Erza. "Guess I'll take her back to the guild then."

Gray pads out of the clearing, Erza cradled in his arms. As the ice mage fades out of view, Lucy drops down from a tree. "They'd make a cute couple," she ponders to Natsu. "Shame that Erza's got Jellal."

"Yes," Natsu gives her a real glare this time. "But shouldn't you be more concerned about them finding out right now?"

"Nah." Lucy shrugs from across the clearing. "They're going to find out eventually. And you get to be the one to tell them!"

"Why me?" Natsu whines at his wife.

Lucy only sticks out her tongue and thinks about how perfect they fit together. Like two puzzle pieces, might be a cliché way to put it, that came from separate puzzles but still fit perfectly together.

But they're hiding their love and one of them are supposed to be dead.

How is that not cliché?

0-0-0-0-0-0

_"It was the reenactment of some stupid love story, but she was just fine with it."_

Sooooo, as many of you may see, this story is coming to a close. I'm very, very thankful for all those who reviewed- without those pieces of feedback, this story would have closed at two chapters. Again, thank you guys so much.

I hope you enjoyed this chapter! There's one or two more to go… Probably two and then random ideas that pop up for this universe at random times. If that made any sense.

Please review! Reviews are my writing blood! :)


	4. Chapter 4

_The Girl Who Was Supposed to Die_

_Disclaimer: Credit goes where credit is due_

It's July 7, X789 and Natsu's at a grave.

"Why did you drag us out here?" Gray groans from behind Natsu as yet another ice cream cone materializes into existence. Ezra is standing right next to the ice mage, stoic and wary of her surroundings as always.

Natsu just motions to the trees in response.

The first thing that Ezra notices is a pair of large brown eyes that resemble a doe's, then a hand with a ring on it. A female hand with a diamond ring, to be exact.

Gray's not paying attention to the dark gap between two trees as Erza starts shifting nervously from side to side. A quick elbow to the side from Natsu quickly remedies that, though.

"Yes, flamehead?" Gray asks Natsu, annoyed. The dragon slayer had woken him up at five AM and then dragged him out to a grave, just to mourn someone who had been dead for six years. Personally, Gray thought that Natsu should have been over it by now.

"Pay attention!" Natsu frowns at Gray.

"Who's going to make me?"

"Me!"

"Yeah?"

Ezra ignores the two boys glaring at each other as beautiful blonde steps out into the clearing.

The other girl's a bit over six feet tall, her large bust precariously contained by a skimpy, dragon-themed, bikini top. Her waist-high pants are tight and accentuate her hips, which are borderline small, but, at the same time, are almost considered wide. She's like some sort of angel that's stepping out onto the battlefield, ready to defeat the enemy.

Erza notices small gleams of silver, gold, and black in the blonde's hair. Erza twists her upper body to see exactly what's in the seemingly perfect sea of yellow-gold and gasps when she lands her gaze on a key, tied with a lock of blonde.

Gray decides to stop glaring at Natsu and turn around at that very moment. His ice cream drops to the ground and shatters, sending shards of ice and sticks into the air. "Mother of God." Gray simply says as he sees the woman. "Is that you, Lucy?"

"'Su!" The woman ignores Gray and yells at Natsu. "Put your ring on, won't you?"

Natsu blows air through his lips, imitating a horse. "Kay. But as long as you promise me that we'll try for a kid later on."

"And who says you haven't already knocked me up?" Lucy says, raising an eyebrow.

"Shit." Natsu freezes and his joking mood instantly collapses. "You aren't, are you?"

No one responds- Lucy's just standing there with a smirk and Gray and Erza are shocked into submission.

They all stand there in silence for the better part of ten minutes.

"Nope." Lucy eventually quips. "Just testing your reaction times there."

"Stupid Luigi… You're love you."

"I still think that you like the sex more." Lucy shrugs and plops herself onto the ground. "Gray! Erza! Come down and join me!"

Erza just nods and slowly lowers herself into the ground. Her legs are shaking and her heart is pounding out of her chest. The reasons? First, Natsu's married. Natsu is supposed to be a stupid, single bachelor running around, not a caring husband. Secondly, Lucy's alive. That hit Erza straight in the chest. Her best 'gossip buddy', who knew everything about everyone, died in front of the guild's eyes while Lucy was defending her spirits. The revelation that Lucy's alive makes the last six or so years- Erza never kept count because it hurt so much- seem null. Pretend.

Lastly? That's the biggest one. Lucy's married to Natsu.

Combining reasons one and two was the ticker for Erza.

Erza tried to continue to process the situation, but eventually gives up and passes out onto the forest floor.

Gray just stands there, staring at Lucy with his mouth on the ground. Flamebrain married a dead person, is all he can think. A dead person! And married!

"I think you broke them." Natsu mumbles to Lucy as he lightly pokes her side with his foot.

Lucy nods, her eyes wide open at the other's responses. "I think I did."

"You're the one waking them up and explaining this it all to them."

"I was just trying to make it seem like we were all cool together, like in some movie!"

"And I wanted that too, but you still shocked the shit out of them, so you get to explain."

"What? You can't be serious."

"Ignoring Lucy!"

"Come on, Natsu!"

"What was that buzzing? I wonder…."

"…. I hate you."

"Love ya too, Luce."

0-0-0-0-0-0

_"She could tell that he didn't mean it, but continued to argue with him."_

Wow… Look at how productive I was this week… Short chapter with the rare and elusive dialogue! Anyhow, thank you to all who reviewed and I hope you enjoyed this chapter. It was, again, short and I'm not completely satisfied with it. It's as good as it's going to get though… :)

Please read and review! There might be another chapter if you do! ^^


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